"We will be seeing locusts on a daily basis in the foreseeable future," a ministry official said.

Locust swarm in Zeelim (Photo: Tzvi Levin)

"But gladly we have the situation under control due to readiness and hard work."

Ramat Negev Council head Shmulik Rifman was less optimistic. "The locust plague is not yet behind us," he said, expressing concern that the grasshoppers will multiply beyond the control of pesticides.

Pesticide spraying (Photo: Yisrael Yosef)

"A very large swarm of females has arrived and we're worried that they'll reproduce," added Yaakov Moskovich, a Ramat Negev official.

"However, despite the swarms no great damage was caused to crops.
We follow them constantly, and every morning there's pesticide spraying."

Locust in Shivta (Photo: Yael Moskovich)

Smaller swarms arrived on Friday and were sprayed as well in what has become, as the Agriculture Ministry put it, a "routine."

Only exceptionally large swarms are reported to the press, the ministry's spokesperson noted, or if a swarm should happen to drift to the country's center.

On Wednesday, large amounts of locusts were spotted at the Tamar Regional Council, near the Dead Sea,
Ein Gedi
and Masada.

"It was crazy. There were millions of them," said Doron Laks. "We drove toward them and millions just kept coming. All Ein Gedi was crawling with locusts. But they didn’t do any damage. We didn't see them eat the vegetation."